HOOVER, Ala. – You can learn a lot about a man when you stick a microphone in his face and pepper him with questions at rapid-fire pace.

Tennessee senior linebacker A.J. Johnson revealed some interesting facts about himself at SEC Media Days on Tuesday.

For starters, he likes playing tag.

Apparently, he and roommate Curt Maggitt take it pretty seriously.

“We play tag, and we can be dead serious about trying to win playing tag,” he said. “If you get tagged by somebody, you’ve got to tag somebody back within five seconds or you lose. We don’t want to lose, so we’re chasing and running around the house just to get them back in five seconds.”

He also revealed that he is a video game aficionado, but he does not like sports games and is not the least bit upset that EA’s NCAA football series was discontinued this season.

“I’m more of a ‘Call of Duty’ man,” he said.

Johnson likes to take selfies — he asked to take one with media members before he sat down to answer questions. He said he was eager to see how it turned out when he was done.

His favorite NFL linebacker?

“I know he’s out of the NFL now, but Ray Lewis — that’s who I look up to,” Johnson said.

He even weighed in on what it would be like to be a kicker.

“If I was a kicker, I’d have all the pressure. Kickers got all the pressure. Whether it’s game-winning or tie games. It’s hard to put myself in their shoes.”

Johnson also gave a little insight into the punishment system for minor transgressions within the Tennessee football program.

He said the toughest punishments levied on Vols players often are handed down by the strength and conditioning staff. They include repeatedly rolling a 45-pound weight around the outline of the “T” as well as pushing around what he described as an “old-school wooden sled” loaded down with weight.

Fixing flaws: One of the things Johnson needs to improve on in his senior season is pass coverage. He’s strong against the run but has been a liability against the pass at times.

“Sometimes you’ve got these little scatbacks coming out,” he said. “… I’m trying to improve everything. You work at the little stuff every day.”

Johnson said he is looking forward to the arrival of junior college linebacker Chris Weatherd, who should compete for a starting spot. “He can run, and that’s what we need,” Johnson said.

Spurrier on Vandy’s title chances: Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason made some waves at SEC Media Days when the first-year coach said the Commodores were ready to compete for an SEC championship after back-to-back nine-win seasons.

“I think our opportunity to compete for an SEC East title is now,” Mason said on Monday.

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who has eight SEC Championship game appearances, pondered the possibility of a trip to Atlanta for the Commodores.

“Only time will tell if Vandy can do it,” Spurrier said on Tuesday. “I heard Coach Mason (talking about) winning nine, but 10, 11 down the road. That is setting your goals high.

“But who knows? Who knows if it can or can’t be done? I know Wake Forest won an ACC one year. One year we won one there at Duke.”

Vanderbilt never has advanced to the SEC championship since the title game’s inception in 1992. The Commodores’ best conference record since switching to divisional play was 5-3 in 2012, which was good for fourth place in the East.

“It will be interesting,” Spurrier said. “I like Derek Mason. I think he’s an excellent coach. What they did defensively at Stanford is about as good as anybody in the country. I think he’ll do a very good job there.”

Another trophy? It’s not official, but South Carolina and Texas A&M could play for the Alamo Trophy, a bronze sculpture that would go to the winner of what now is scheduled as an annual game.

The sculpture depicts James Butler Bonham, a University of South Carolina-educated hero of the Alamo, headed to the 1836 battle.

Katon Dawson, a South Carolina Republican party leader, has said he is working with governors of both states to make possession of the trophy a reward to the winner of the game.

On Tuesday, Spurrier sounded less than enthusiastic about the idea. He pointed out that South Carolina and Missouri already play for the Mayors’ Cup, thus named since both schools are located in cities named Columbia.

“If they want to do it, that’s fine,” he said. “I just don’t know how many games you’re going to have a trophy for as you go through the season.”

Spurrier also had one other point of concern.

“I’m actually from Tennessee,” he said. “I always was taught the hero of the Alamo was Davy Crockett, so this is a new one on me.”

Johnny who? Is there life after Johnny Manziel?

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin says there better be.

Asked at SEC Media Days on Tuesday whether the Aggies are entering a transitional phase after the exit of Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner and a recent first-round draft pick, Sumlin said:

“Our expectations are not going to change. In this business, we don’t have time for a bunch of rebuilding years. There’ll be another guy standing up here real quick.”

Clearly, Sumlin has moved forward even if others haven’t. When he had fielded one too many questions about Manziel, he smiled and said:

“Is this the SEC? That’s a question for the Cleveland Browns. Anybody else got something?”

Sumlin has prepared for this day. It’s the nature of the game.

“College football is a lot different than the NFL,” he said. “Really great NFL teams keep a core group of players. In college football, every two or three years, you’re going to have turnover. You have to prepare for that.

“We’ve been able to recruit very, very well to a system we believe in. What do you do now? We’ve laid the groundwork in recruiting to still be successful.”

Sumlin said he has not yet determined who will be his starting quarterback for the Aggies’ opening game at South Carolina. The two leading candidates are sophomore Kenny Hill, a big-time recruit who played sparingly last season, and Kyle Allen, the No. 1 prospect in the country last year.

While Texas A&M has lost considerable star power, Sumlin said the overall roster is stronger now because of improved depth, especially on defense. Remember, Texas A&M went 4-4 in the SEC last season with Manziel and fellow first-round NFL draft picks Jake Matthews and Mike Evans.

Sumlin pointed out that the Aggies did not have another draft pick after the first round. Via strong recruiting over the past couple of years, he continues to build depth.

“Defensively, we have more depth in our front seven,” he said. “It’s a line-of-scrimmage league. … We’ll have great competition across the board. We’ve got pieces in place.”

Plus for Nashville: Scott Ramsey, president and CEO of the Nashville Sports Council, is enthusiastic about a new plan in which the SEC office assigns the bulk of its bowl bids from a pool of bowl-eligible teams.

Under the plan, the assignment process begins after the national championship playoff participants have been determined as well as the teams in the Sugar Bowl and Capital One Bowl. Eight other bowls have SEC tie-ins. The Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl is among them.

“Speaking from Nashville’s perspective, the new structure will give us the maximum opportunity to get the right team in the right year,” Ramsey said. “You have the opportunity to get the right matchups with the right teams in the right cities.”

Over the six-year duration of the latest contract, the Music City Bowl will match a team from the SEC against a team from either the ACC or Big Ten.

Football or futbol? While other SEC coaches were fixating on their own rosters, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen was concerned that Luis Suarez was traded from Liverpool to Barcelona.

“That’s a lot of offensive power gone from Liverpool,” he said.

Mullen is a fan of European soccer and was locked into the World Cup. His love of soccer is linked to his mother, who is a British citizen who grew up in North Wales.

“I grew up on that stuff, watching soccer,” he said.

Mullen believes there is a comparison between European soccer and SEC football in terms of the passion of fans.

“That is one of the things that makes this league so much fun,” he said. “The passion that our fan bases have for football is similar to watching the passion these European soccer teams and follows have, which is a pretty neat deal.”